North and INTZ qualify for the StarLadder Berlin Major

The final teams that will play in the StarLadder Berlin Major have been confirmed today.

North and INTZ qualified for the second Valve-sponsored CS:GO tournament of the year alongside DreamEaters, who qualified earlier today at the Minor play-in. MVP PK won’t make their debut at the Major this time after losing to both North and INTZ.

Following the DreamEaters vs. INTZ matchup, North and MVP PK played their own best-of-three series, which began on Nuke, the Koreans’ map pick. North shut down almost all of the offensive plays MVP PK made in the first half, moving to the second part with an 11-4 advantage. The six rounds MVP PK gathered in the second half weren’t enough to prevent North from winning it 16-10. Nicklas Gade finished on top of the scoreboard with 27 kills, more than one per round.

Differently from Nuke, North started playing on the T-side on Inferno. The Danes once again moved to the second half on top, this time with a 9-6 advantage. North almost finished the game quickly by winning five rounds in a row, but MVP PK resisted a bit before losing 16-10 again. North’s in-game leader Valdemar “valde” Bjørn was the top fragger with 24 kills and almost made a one-vs-five clutch in the first half of the map.

MVP PK had a bit more than an hour to reset their minds and face INTZ, who lost to DreamEaters in the first best-of-three series of the day. The first game was played on Vertigo, the Koreans’ choice. The first half was balanced. Both teams couldn’t convert too many rounds in a row and MVP PK barely finished on top with an 8-7 lead. But moving on to the second half, INTZ were the better team and dominated playing as terrorists, winning 16-12. Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes led the troops with 27 kills and only 18 deaths.

Train was the second and final map of the series, and the first half was similar to the end of Vertigo. INTZ once again played well on the terrorist side and built a 10-5 lead in one of the most defensive maps in CS:GO. The Brazilians would’ve won the second pistol of the game if it wasn’t for a one-vs-four clutch by Kim “stax” Gu-Taek, but they recovered by winning the following force buy. INTZ had to calm their nerves to close out the game 16-13 since MVP PK were gaining momentum to try to steal the map win.

North and INTZ must be relieved to qualify for the Major. The Danes failed at the IEM Katowice Minor play-in in January despite being huge favorites and they didn’t qualify for the first Major of the year in February. As for INTZ, they should’ve won against DreamEaters, but they managed to qualify for the Major in the end. This will be the first Major for the organization and for four of INTZ’s five players.

MVP PK, on the other hand, might be disappointed in this result. The Minor play-in gives three slots for the four teams that attend the last-chance tournament. The Koreans were a more well-known team than DreamEaters, who they may have expected to face in the last series instead of INTZ.

The StarLadder Berlin Major will start on Aug. 23 following the players’ break.